I really need some help!!

[thestartupman]

I am planning to build my own home. It will be somewhere between 1500, and 2000sq ft. I have helped build several homes before. I have done a little of everything. The only thing I may not do as far as the building goes, is the foundation, because the forms cost too much. The other would be the taping and mudding of the drywall, because the guys that do this every day, are much quicker. Now the help that I need is in estamating how much it will cost me to build it??????

[gone-a-milkin]

Did you buy your land in MO? Where?

Everything cost-wise is dependant on location.

[thestartupman]

Still looking between TN, and MO. I pretty much know the time line now. I will be moving in April 2011

[texican]

The forms cost... but you can break em down and use them in the house, or in an outbuilding.

I've started working on my home again, after a hiatus... the site is very sloped, with curved walls... I'm building exterior walls out of stone, so my footers are three feet wide (or greater) and 30" deep. I'm laying exterior stone, and then coming behind that with a flexible form, and pouring reinforced concrete. Once all the exterior 'walls' foundation is up, I'll contemplate pouring the concrete.

It's really not an easy thing to do unless you have multiple 'hands' on site.

I really don't care how rough the finish floor is, because I'll be laying slate or brick over some parts, granite and mexican tiles over the rest.

My neighbor (an artist) built his home back in the sixties... he did the exterior walls, excavated the floor six inches deep, laid a sand bed, and then cemented old bricks in place. The floor is still strong as ever. I'm seriously contemplating doing this. I could pay professionals... but I dislike having lots of strangers knowing my business...

Don't like drywall? Don't use it, or do use it, and cover the walls with thin cut planks (have a bandsaw mill nearby???).

[upnorthlady]

Originally Posted by thestartupman

I am planning to build my own home. It will be somewhere between 1500, and 2000sq ft. I have helped build several homes before. I have done a little of everything. The only thing I may not do as far as the building goes, is the foundation, because the forms cost too much. The other would be the taping and mudding of the drywall, because the guys that do this every day, are much quicker. Now the help that I need is in estamating how much it will cost me to build it??????

When we built our house, we bought most of our supplies from a local building supplier. He took our plans and put everything through a computer program he had that printed out how much we would need of everything, right down to pounds of screws. He gave us the print out, which was sectioned into lumber supplies, hardware supplies, drywall, window supplies, roofing, rafters, etc. etc. The estimate was pretty much right on. We didn't buy all of our supplies from them, but enough so that the estimator didn't charge us for this service. I think Menard's does the same thing if you take home dimensions to them and purchase a lot of your stuff with them. Other big box suppliers might do this, too. That's all you need is some kind of computer program to figure this all out for you.

[artificer]

Are you asking how much the foundation will cost, or the whole house? If the foundation, do you mean just the footing, or the including the foundation wall? The footing forms are just 2X lumber, which can be reused as Texican said. The walls can be cement block that you lay yourself, or drystacked/coated. Poured foundation walls are nice, but its something you can't typically do yourself. The nice part is that you write a check, and the walls appear a few days later.

Other than pointing you to stores/web sites that will let you get estimates of a specific design, nobody can really help you without more information. Its sort of the same as asking... "I want to buy a car, how much is it going to cost." What TYPE of car? A Ferrari is going to cost just a little bit more than a Honda Fit.

A saltbox is going to be cheaper than a split level ranch with cathedral ceiling. Brazilian Cherry hardwood floors are going to cost more than a smoothed/painted concrete floating slab floor.

There are just so many options that you have to have either a design, and get the cost, or have a budget, and make the house fit it. My dream home if I had all the cash up front to pay for it would be a monolithic dome house.

Michael

[agmantoo]

For a footer you really do not have to have a form. If you will dig down to where you want the top of the footer to be and stop, you can then dig the footer carefully in the soil and let the soil be the form. Once the concrete cures you can then dig down around the newly poured foundation to expose the amount of footer that you want to have above grade. Having the footer level is really what is important as it makes future work much easier. Correcting out of level errors becomes expensive using brick mix or mortar.

[MushCreek]

There are so many variables, I can't really say. For the actual house itself, I'd say somewhere between $50 and $100 sq ft. But if you buy land, it costs money- sometimes a lot of money- just to get ready to build. There's clearing, driveway, utilities, well, septic, and permits. All of those things can be wildly different, depending on local conditions. I read of someone building in CA whose permits cost $20,000! Other places, permits may only be a few hundred dollars, or even nothing at all. A well could be very expensive, depending on how deep they have to go. If the house is a 1/2 mile into the woods, even a gravel driveway is going to get expensive, not to mention having power brought in.

There are some folks building very cheaply, if you can scrounge used materials and get creative. Local inspection and zoning can play a big role. If you have to meet modern building codes, it costs a lot more due to new energy standards. For example, many places are going to require residential fire sprinklers for new construction starting in January.

You need to do some research on WHERE you're going to do this first. Do a lot of research on zoning and building requirements before you buy the land!

[thestartupman]

I understand that there are a lot of variables. I was hoping to get some responses like " we built a 1800 sq ft home in MO, that cost us $60,000". Or, " we built a 2000 sq ft home in TN, and it cost us $1000000".

[strawhouse]

We built our own home, and build for a living as well.
The average price for standard construction (stick frame) is $100 a square foot for material. $200 a square foot for materials and labour.
Our house however cost $45 a square foot for materials. (load bearing straw bale, no wood) This price included our drilled well and septic.
These are Candaian prices, shouldn't be too much different though.
Our place:
http://registry.osbbc.ca/listing-mag...idence-95.html
Good luck!!!

[thestartupman]

I did find a friend at work that had built his own home. I talked to him today, and he said it was a 2600 q ft home, and it cost him $110,000 to build it. He paid to have the foundation poured, drywall hung, taped, and mudded, and the carpet put in, and did the rest himself. That doesn't seem too bad cosidering he lives in the NW.

[Patt]

Can you give us a general idea of what you plan to build?

[thestartupman]

More than likely a stick framed home with about 1800 sq ft. It will not be extravagant, but I do plan on having hard wood floors through out most of the home, some carpet, and tile.

[texican]

1400 sq feet, 7000$... concrete slab, brick walls... did all the work myself... what is that, 4 or 5$ a square foot?

Building another home up the hill, hope to get it built for around $10/foot {dollar a foot for slab, dollar a foot for roof, and that leaves a whole $8 for all the innards... most of which I've already accumulated/scrounged}... if I can make a window deal, I'm golden.

[Harry Chickpea]

Look in a good bookstore or online. There are books on estimated costs that are fairly accurate. They also have standard construction practices outlined and are good general references.

[michiganfarmer]

Originally Posted by thestartupman

I understand that there are a lot of variables. I was hoping to get some responses like " we built a 1800 sq ft home in MO, that cost us $60,000". Or, " we built a 2000 sq ft home in TN, and it cost us $1000000".

I built a 20 x 26 addition on my house. Full basement, and 2 stories on top of that. I hired the basement dug, I traded labor with people who helped me build it. the materials cost $21,000 12 years ago.

[TnAndy]

Well, as long as you understand there are a WHOLE lot of variables:

Last houses I built about 6-8 years ago.

28x36, with 2nd bedrm/bath up, catherdrel ceiling over front living/dining. Basement was tough.....lot sloped serious to lower side, basement wall was 15' high on that side ( 6-7' just to get up to concrete floor level ). About 1200' sqft finished, I did all labor ( including build cabinets, make moldings, etc ) except heat pump and install carpet on stairs/upper bedrm ( hardwood on 1st floor ). Included appliances, as this was a rental. $34/sqft, lot not included.



1800sqft, 4 bedrms ( 3 up, master on far end with small gable roof ), 2 1/2 baths. Hardwood/tile downstairs, carpet up. I made all cabinets, moldings, and did all labor except heat pump, carpet install, and pour driveway. All 3 of these, by the way, much of the framing lumber was timber off my own place sawed on my bandmill. Did use store bought trusses the garage section of this one, to get clear span. $36/sqft , + lot.



1500sqft. 3 bedrm, 2 bath. Same interior as others. Larger drive under garage. Used floor and roof trusses both, my floor joists on middle level ( which is on a crawl space ). Added fireplace, and the drive is LONG ( about 300' ) and concrete. $45/sqft + lot



By the same token, you can spend a LOT in just one room. Remodeling my kitchen now, and don't know what the total will come to, but when you start in with granite counter tops, high end appliances, even with me building all the cabinetry, you can get a LOT of money tied up in a small space.

Built the house originally for about 50k ( 1985) and been remodeling ever since...ahahahaaaa.



Project out to the right is a "skyzebo"....couple summers ago project. Took about 20' of block to get up level with the deck on the back of the house.. ( that is a 24' extension ladder leaning against the lower wall )...and the roof was a whole nuther challenge.



But it turned out pretty nice.....did the inside out of all red cedar, including 4x6 exposed rafters.

[strawhouse]

Originally Posted by texican

1400 sq feet, 7000$... concrete slab, brick walls... did all the work myself... what is that, 4 or 5$ a square foot?

Building another home up the hill, hope to get it built for around $10/foot {dollar a foot for slab, dollar a foot for roof, and that leaves a whole $8 for all the innards... most of which I've already accumulated/scrounged}... if I can make a window deal, I'm golden.

Those are great numbers! Congrats! You must have been using alot of scrounged / recycled materials? Things are soooo much cheaper when you can do that. We had to fight tooth and nail with the building inspector up here to allow a straw bale house. We had to use all new materials in order to keep them happy.
Of course, now that the house is built, the inspector doesn't need to know about the other projects around the house! (studio, barn, sheds, etc!)

[MushCreek]

In most places, you can't build with used materials for anything structural. And if you mill your own lumber, some areas require it to be inspected and grade-stamped. Not to be negative, but it's getting harder and harder to find a place where a person can do what they want on their own property! I read about a super-insulated home that required no heat- the warmth of the people and the heat given off by appliances kept it warm. But because it was law, they had to put in a furnace- which they never used.

[texican]

Lots of salvaged/scrounged in the first house.

Second house, even more, if you count salvaged wood, as in trees that were going to either rot or be burned... carried em to the local bandsaw miller and now have in excess of 20K board feet of lumber in the barn. Er, barns.

TnAndy... thanks for posting a pic of the skyzebo... in my 'spare' time, (doing manual labor projects) I work on the difficult parts of my new home project... there'll be several towers, and one extra large one... I hadn't figured out how to safely roof it........ thanks for that inspirational bracing system!!!

Now, if I could only figure out how to do a circular conical roof, with metal roofing, I'd be set. Can probably do it with flat sheet roofing, but with the 'ridged' roofing panels, it'd be a whole lot of fancy cutting and sealing...